Salmon Chowder

Ritual and tradition are powerful forces, both for good and for ill. Such it is with me and chowder. I grew up eating chowder, all sorts of chowder, really, but my mom’s is the best. It is a brothy, Maine-style clam chowder that is always made from the same ingredients. always in the same way. Any deviation is apostasy.

Needless to say I developed a taste for this sort of chowder, no matter if it’s made with clams or fish or whatever. Sure, I like Manhattan “clam chowder,” but I view it as more of a perfectly nice clam soup than a proper chowder. There is also a Rhode Island style chowder with no tomato or dairy — also a lovely soup, but not a chowder.

There is, however, one incarnation of chowder I loathe: It is that hideous, gloppy monstrosity a particular set of New Englanders are known to concoct, mostly I suspect for Midwestern tourists. And I say “Midwestern” because I recently had a version of this chowder in Minnesota that was so thick you could stand a spoon in it.

I am gagging just thinking about it; apparently this is how many in the Midwest like their chowder. Gak.

It should be pretty clear to you by now that I am, well, a little opinionated about what is and is not “chowder.” I blame my family, but they shouldn’t feel bad about that; like I said before, sometimes ritual and tradition are good things.

My first tentative steps to break that training came earlier this year, with a perch chowder I designed specifically for the Great Lakes region. It’s made with yellow perch and Polish kielbasa and is damn good if I say so myself. This salmon chowder is my second step.

I should start by saying that what you see in the picture is not, strictly speaking, a salmon chowder: It’s made with a steelhead trout. Steelhead is very close to salmon, although it is a little leaner and a lot paler (unless you are working with pink salmon, which is the same color). Any salmon, char or trout you feel like using will work here.

I live in Northern California, where the chinook salmon is king. This is the very southern end of its range, and what, ecologically speaking, could be called the Pacific Northwest — and it is the Pacific Northwest, with its vast salmon runs, trout in the mountains, steelhead in the rivers and char in the snowy North — where I drew my inspiration here.

This salmon chowder has bacon, corn, lots of herbs and a homemade stock. None of this would fly in mum’s clam chowder.

But here’s the thing: People move West to escape tradition, to be free to be whomever they wish to be. Why can’t their chowder follow suit?

Salmon Chowder

You can use any salmonid fish for this recipe... actually, you can use any fish -- except for something like sardines, mackerel or bluefish. What makes this chowder great is the broth you make from the heads and bones, and while you are perfectly OK making this with store-bought stock, it will not be as good. Serve with crusty sourdough bread and a hoppy beer or crisp white wine. Oh, and this chowder is actually better the next day; just heat it up very slowly on the stovetop. Don't let it boil.

Instructions

To make the broth, bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it well. Add the salmon bones, heads, etc. When the water returns to a boil, let this cook 1 minute. Remove the salmon bits (save them!) and discard the water. Blanching this way removes the scum from the stock and will give you a cleaner-tasting broth when you are done.

Wipe out the pot, add the oil, and turn the heat to medium-high. When the oil is hot, saute the onion, carrot and celery, stirring often, until the onion is soft, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the wine, bay leaves and the dried mushrooms and use a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Let the wine boil for a minute or two, then add the blanched salmon bones and enough cool water to cover everything by about 1/2 inch. Bring to a very gentle simmer (barely bubbling) and cook like this for 45 minutes.

Get a large bowl for the broth and set a strainer over it. Line the strainer with a plain paper towel or cheesecloth. Turn off the heat on the broth and ladle it through the strainer and into the bowl. Don't bother trying to get the last little bit of broth out of the pot, as it will be full of debris. Discard the contents of the pot and reserve the broth.

To make the chowder, melt the butter in a Dutch over or other soup pot set over medium heat. Add the bacon and fry, stirring and turning often, until crispy, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add the onion and celery and saute until soft, about another 4 to 5 minutes. Add the potatoes and the salmon broth and being to a simmer. Add salt to taste. Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.

When the potatoes are tender, add the corn and the chunks of salmon. Cook gently until the salmon is just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the dill, heavy cream and black pepper.

Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet's largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

I like to read comments when I get a blog recipe, and find out what others have learned before me. In that spirit I offer my lesson. Yes, I wanted to make soup instead of gravy aka chowder in some places. I love using every part I can of my fish, and usually put up some “soup packets” in the freezer. To the person that asked if she could use salmon chunks- that is mostly what I had in my packet this time, on accounta I’m still honing my filleting skills. I understood that I wouldn’t get the collagen rich broth, but what surprised me was the amount of albumin I got. The thing was, I had read about “that white stuff” being caused by cooking too hot or fast, so I put the salmon in with the herbs and seasoning and a can of chicken broth, plus water, and set it at a very low temp, like a 3 on the 1-10 of an electric stove. My intent was to gently poach the salmon and remove it then saute the veg and add to the broth, add the cooked salmon at the very end. That albumin really came out in my broth and covered my salmon, too. The first time I checked it, after about 30 minutes, it wasn’t even cooked through, so hard to imagine it was at too high a temp. I don’t know if my Chinook was particularly high in protein or what, but wanted to tell y’all. I used what I had which was half and half, and it wasn’t too noticeable in the final product but not real pretty in the soup, that amorphous goop. Hank, by now, you might be all, dang, get chur own blog, but like I said just wanted to share. I love the addition of the corn, and other vegetables that I would not have thought of, and the recipe really gave me more than I was looking for.

Great dinner. I made it a bit protein deficient since I didn’t put bacon or salmon chunks in. I just wanted to use up my salmon broth I made earlier. Looking forward to trying it again but following it through as it’s written.

Anyone done this with hot smoked salmon? I was thinking of just adding in my own smoked salmon (12hr brine/5hr smoke) at the end. Thought I’d make it a day in advance to let all of the flavors combine. Thinks this will work day?

Made this with actual fresh caught salmon. It’s extremely hot out but when you have fresh ingredients you go with it. It wasn’t complicated and turned out very well. I doubled the batch and hope some of it will freeze okay. Very flavorful and satisfying. I do feel like I smell like salmon now but that can be fixed 🙂 I admit I cheated on the stock and didn’t add all the herbs, but it still tastes excellent.

I made this tonight for my family and it turned out great! I added a flour slurry before the cream to make it thick the way my family is used to. It was really nice to be able to use something that others would normally throw out and turn it into something delicious! Thank you.

I love this recipe! I make it all the time. On more than one occasion I’ve had people tell me “I don’t usually like seafood” as they’re going back for seconds. I have a whole load of heads and bones from dipnetting (up here in Alaska) so I’m gonna make a lot of stock, and then disregard your sage advice against pressure canning. I’ll let you know how it goes!

As someone originally from Minnesota, I have to say that eating gloppy chowder is not the what people in the Midwest necessarily like. It is simply what is served in so many places. I have had gloppy chowder in all parts of the country, including on the East Coast and here in the great NW (most recently Astoria)! I have always made my own non-gloppy version both in Minnesota and in Oregon.

So my wife made this yesterday, and it was dynamite. Hadn’t ever made fish broth before so I was admittedly nervous about how “fishy” it would be. As I learned a few years back, just place your faith in the man, and follow his directions, and he never lets you down.

We ended up with enough extra broth to make another batch.

Will this broth keep if pressure canned?

As is usually the case, this would be a piece of cake if you had the broth ready to go….

So, if I really prefer thick chowder do I just add more heavy cream? I really prefer the thick ones myself and have never made chowder. I have a bunch of salmon in the freezer and want to try new things. Thanks!

Do you have any advice about using smoked salmon. Since cooking with smoked salmon sometimes accentuates the smoke flavor….I’m thinking 1/2 smoked salmon and 1/2 unsmoked.

I’m in Alaska and we normally eat our salmon fresh in the summer months and smoke and freeze our winter supply. So, I don’t have any unsmoked salmon. Would it be an abomination to substitute canned salmon? If yes, I may be able to find some frozen salmon in a neighbor’s freezer but it will probably be filleted.

I had a few pieces of salmon that were sealed and frozen that I was unsure of what to do with. I really did not want to BBQ them and a buddy turned me on to this recipe. A couple months ago I had a half dozen lobsters and I made a stock out of the remainders after the meal:

Needless to say, this is the best soup that I have ever made. Easy to follow directions and was quick and very tasty. I have no doubt that the stock recipe given in this Salmon Chowder recipe would be great, but the extra flavor of the lobster nailed it. Thanks, I will be making this again real soon.

Thanks for posting this recipe. My husband and I live in Michigan and salmon fish all summer long. I’m always looking for a new way to cook salmon/ steelhead/ trout. Your chowder recipe is very close to one that I came up with, except I use sweet potatoes in mine because my husband is allergic to regular potatoes. They work well as long as you don’t cook them too long….

Made this recipe tonight. It was fantastic. My girlfriend crumbled crackers into hers but I liked the chowder straight on. A little bread, salad and some Gewürztraminer and it was a little seafood heaven! Thanks again, Hank, for such a great recipe!

Bacon, wine, cream, but not thick. Yep, that’s how we roll in Seattle! (Except Ivar’s, gloppy and thick… ugh.) And now I am craving chowder, thanks Hank. I usually wing together something like this with razor clams and oysters when we come back from a dig, but it works fantastically with salmon scraps during the summer runs (I like to use the leftover meat on the spine after filleting, plus a few tail-end chunks of fillet). Not boiling the head is key, I put a thermometer in it and keep it at about 190.

I’m definitely trying this and will inevitably try some other fish concoctions. I have to say, I think I am the ONLY person in New England who enjoys both thinner and thicker chowders. I have never had a chowder so thick you could stand a spoon in it, but chowder is chowder, not soup (in reply to whoever wrote that it is soup). I like it to be somewhat like bisque or even possibly a little thicker, but this looks perfect for a thinner chowder. I also don’t think I’d ever order chowder in the mid-west.. I think of that as being a more German/Scandinavian cuisine part of the country.

How excited am I right now? My husband is always catching trout and now I have a use for the parts he dumps. So much better to use it for stock and have less waste. I’m more grateful with every post of yours to have found your site a few months back b/c I’ve found so many great recipes. Thanks for sharing.

Sarah: Yes, you can, but it will not be as good — no collagen from the bones. Use about 1 1/2 pounds max. Honestly, though, I might just use chicken broth.

Erika: Exactly. Leaving the gills in both clouds the stock and makes it bitter.

Sara: Those foods are all inherently chewy. Octopus needs LOOONG cooking, i.e., 2+ hours, while squid needs only 30 seconds. Clams will always be chewy, but they can cook for up to 5 minutes or so. Scallops should be dropped in right before you serve.

Robert: Yep, go with any of those — the key is firmness. Yellow perch is ideal, but any firm fish will work.

Hank – for those of us who are landlocked in the south – when you say “any fish” (other than the few you mention) – does that transalate to our readily available game fish? Largemouth bass? crappie? Thanks.

I know this is slightly off topic but I don’t know where else to ask. When making seafood soups – how do you not make the seafood rubbery? We make a mixed seafood bits soup and it almost always is difficult to chew. The mix comes frozen so it might be the product but it has scallops, clams, squid/octopus, and other “bits”. We’ve tried adding the fish at the very end of the cooking so they are just cooked but they are still like hitting bits of rubber.

This looks much, much better than those other gloppy chowders you describe. Have to try this with some of the citrus salts I’ve got halfway mixed in place of the dill. Oh, and thanks for the fish stock technique. I’ve never ventured there…

Can I just use extra salmon meat to make the broth? My husband caught a bunch of salmon over the summer, but he filleted it all and we have it sealed and frozen….so no heads, fins or bones. If not, is there somewhere to purchase salmon broth, or is there a good substitute? Thanks!